Framing Love
by Jerseycaramel
Summary: 'Ziva didn't know why she was here, standing outside her partner's door with a movie and gifts. It wasn't their normal movie night, and Ziva never bought Tony gifts – they had rules, after all – but today had been more difficult than most. 'You're not the pizza guy,' he smiled at her, clearly stating the obvious.' Post Shell Shock 1. Spoilers. First of three one-shots


A/N: Hiya! First time delving into the fanfic world of NCIS, even though I've been watching it since JAG :P Glasberg has given us a few little Tiva gems since _Shell Shock I_, and little sparks started igniting one-shots for all of them, so this one is the first :)

I know it's been done before, because it was a gorgeous Tiva moment, so I couldn't resist!

I hope you enjoy it :)

* * *

Ziva didn't know why she was here, standing outside her partner's door with a movie and gifts. It wasn't their normal movie night, and Ziva never bought Tony gifts – they had rules, after all – but today had been more difficult than most. She had seen the scared, hurt little boy hiding deep inside him, and she had this impulsive need to comfort him. So here she was standing with her arm poised to rap against his door, and still she hesitated. Ziva had gone to four different stores looking for this particular movie, and along the way she had spotted something perfect for him, something special. Actually, she spotted a few things. So she bought them. Yes, them; plural.

Taking a deep calming breath for what was to come; she knocked with confidence and waited.

'Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!' his voice was muffled through the door, and it sounded like he kicked the table. The door flung open with her partner's face, red around his eyes with his wallet out.

'You're not the pizza guy,' he smiled at her, clearly stating the obvious. Tony opened the door wider to let her in without question, his smile not at all faked. Ziva liked that he was happy to see her, even after the day they had. Gibbs had let them go at the normal time, oddly enough, even with the open case. She supposed that their boss knew they weren't going to get anywhere without some rest and down time.

Tony and McGee had left as soon the words, "go home," had come out of the older man's mouth; Ziva, however, had stayed just a little bit longer.

_'Gibbs.'_

_'Ziva,' her boss acknowledged with a small nod, not taking his eyes off the paper in front of him._

_She paused. She's a highly trained ex-Mossad operative, and yet this simple request was making her shake. Her father would yell if he knew-_

_'What is it, Ziva?' Gibbs said, shaking her out of her thoughts. He was really looking at her now, over those tortishell glasses; the only sign that he was getting on in his years. His voice was laced with concern with her silence, Ziva could tell: well as much concern as his normally calm, concise voice would muster._

_'May I have Tony's picture?' Ziva finally asked._

_Surprise spread over his features with a raised, silver eyebrow. Ziva held her gaze at him, not wanting to show the slightest weakness right now, she didn't need him knowing just how nervous the question made her. _

_Without diverting his gaze from her eyes, Gibbs opened his draw and pulled the photo out, giving it another quick glance before handing it over. _

_'He hasn't changed much, has he?' Gibbs asked her quietly._

_Since Ziva had seen the picture of Tony and his mother, she knew it to be true. _But this is Gibbs, he probably knew what was on the film before Abby did_, Ziva thought to herself._

_'No, he has not,' she smiled, gently taking the photo from his hands and cradling it. She nodded her thanks and went to McGee's desk, typing in the password the 'Probie' had given her in good faith, and erased all the images she could find of her partner's picture. _

_Gibbs watched her silently, not yelling at her for being on McGee's computer or looking through his files. Instead, he crossed his arms while she worked, with a small smile tugging at his mouth. _

_Once she had found all the copies (and there had been a few. How Tim managed to make all those different versions, with flamboyant moustaches and bushy eye brows, Ziva will never know), she made sure to check his backup, and then his backup's backup. Finding another one in his SkyDrive, - she would also ask Abby to check she hadn't missed any – Ziva finally shut the computer down, before heading to her own desk and packing up for the night._

_'Night, Ziva,' Gibbs called as she started to leave the bullpen._

_'Goodnight, Gibbs,' she smiled back, glad her boss did not question her actions, because she honestly wouldn't have an answer._

'Very observant, Tony. You should be an investigator,' Ziva replied dryly as she walked into his home. She heard his warm chuckle behind her as she sat down on his couch placing the bag of gifts on the floor beside her.

The pile of pictures Abby had developed for him today, were on his coffee table, scattered around like he had been picking out his favourites. The couch dipped beside her as she reached forward and picked up another photo of his mother. She was very beautiful. In this one, she was laughing; big and wide and naturally when the picture was snapped candidly. Her head was resting on her palm, her elbow angled on the table below, with a steaming mug next to her. It must have been early morning when the photo was taken, as his mother wore a fluffy gown with her hair slightly mussed and no make-up on her face. In short, she was the picture of beauty, and Ziva could see how Tony Snr fell for her.

'My dad had tried to flip pancakes for the first time in his life,' the Tony next to her explained. Ziva looked up to see him try and fight the tears back as he looked over her shoulder at the photo. 'Mom was feeling sick and he was trying to cheer her up. He flipped it so high it hit the ceiling and stuck there. We were all looking up at it in shock and then it slowly peeled off the roof and hit dad square in the face.'

Ziva giggled at the thought of Mr DiNozzo getting a warm, gooey pancake in the face.

'The camera was in my pocket – I used to take it everywhere – and took a picture of her. She just looked so happy,' he said, sadly. 'It worked; made her laugh,' he whispers, voice cracking and a tear falling down his cheek. Ziva wiped it away, without hesitation, even though they didn't touch each other like that; she couldn't help it. It hurt her to see him like this, and Ziva wanted him to use her shoulder to cry on, so she could be there for him like he's done for her in the past. Tony caught her hand and kissed her palm quickly, and bringing their joined hands to rest on his chest. She could feel his heart quicken and then settle down slowly as he just looked at her.

'I brought you something,' she says finally, breaking the spell they had been under.

The doorbell rings again, and both of them jump. Tony's eyes come back to hers, smiling gently. 'Be right back.' And then he's off the couch and at the door. He comes back to her, pizza in hand and she moves the photos out of the way so he can place the food between them.

'So what's the occasion that you break your no present rule?'

She doesn't answer, just grabs the bag beside her and fishes out the first gift while he opens the box. The smell of pizza swirls out of the cardboard box and hits her nose, making her stomach growl.

'Somebody's hungry,' he chuckles not looking at her. Tony gets up and fiddles in the kitchen, and returns with plates and glasses with a bottle of wine. He stops before sitting back down when he sees what she's holding. Ziva meets his eyes as they soften, a small grin spreading across his face.

'I thought you might like these,' she tells him when he sits. She passes over the small silver frames when he frees his hands, taking them slowly from her. 'I thought you might like to keep the photo you showed me at work on your desk or something,' Ziva shrugs.

'But there are two here.'

'Yes, I figured there would be another you might like to frame, too.' She pulls out the candid of his mother and shows him knowingly. 'It seems I was right.'

He takes the photos off her, and flips through until he finds the one of him and his mother at the movie theatre, placing it into the frame and arranging it on his coffee table. Ziva expected him to place the beautiful photo of his mother in his second frame, instead he smiles at her and pushes off the couch once more, frame in hand.

She watches him as he walks into his bedroom, only to return a few minutes later, frame still in hand. He sits again, placing the other frame next to the first. When he sits back, making himself comfortable with a plate and a slice of pizza she is allowed a view of the photos now at home on the table in front of him, and she can't help the blush that's creeping along her cheeks.

Ziva clears her throat, 'What about this one?' she asks.

He shrugs and swallows his mouthful. 'These two are my favourites.'

Tony's finished his first piece by the time she snaps out of her trance, staring at the two frames.

'There's something else in your bag,' he says, elbowing her arm gently.

'Yes,' Ziva smiles, pulling out the movie she had sought out for him. 'But first,' she says, pulling her purse towards her. 'I got this back for you.' Ziva hands the photo over, and Tony grins at her.

'How'd you get this back?' he chuckles.

'Simply asked Gibbs,' she says nonchalantly, trying to make out like it didn't scare the hell out of her when she asked their boss. His eye squint at her, a little disbelievingly, but he smiles and thanks her, taking the old, really un-Tony-like image from her fingers, setting it on the table in front of the other frames.

'So what's in the bag?'

'I thought we might have a movie night,' she says, handing him the DVD. 'And I have not seen this one before.'

He stills when he sees the cover; a young blonde headed boy with a sword in his hand and looks back up at his partner. Ziva is utterly nervous at his reaction. She wants to share this with him, she's read the book before, so she knows the story, but movies are his thing – were his mother's thing – and she wants to have him share that love with her, with the last movie his mother took him to. She thinks now, that she's overstepped, as he just stares at her. But as his mouth turns up once more, she can see that he's going to induct her into that world, that he's more than happy to take her hand and guide her.

Wordlessly, he takes the movie and inserts it into the player. He sits back down next to her, closing the gap between their bodies as he presses play and hands her a plate before pouring them some wine and grabbing another slice for himself.

Ziva finds she loves the movie, almost as much as she loved the novel, but the food and wine are working against her interest. She falls asleep before the movie ends, slumping into her partner's welcome and warm embrace as her eyes betray her and slide close.

* * *

Tony smiles as her soft snores waft into his ears. He hasn't seen her this calm in a long time, and loves that she's comfortable with him, that she feels safe enough to fall asleep next to him, letting her guard down.

As the movie ends, he can't find the strength to wake her, and he doesn't want to move her warm body from his. Instead he turns off the TV and angles their collective bodies so she's lying on his chest as she sleeps. Gently, he brings the blanket from the back of the couch and covers them in a cocoon. His arms wrap around her waist instinctively, and she nuzzles into his chest more, sighing contently as she slumbers.

He presses a kiss to her hair, silently thanking his lucky stars that he has her in his life, especially after all they have been though together and alone. He's grateful for everything she does for him, all the little kindness she shows, even when he doesn't deserve it.

His eyes move away from the Israeli in his arms and shift to the frames now residing on the coffee table. He can't stop the grin as he meets the beautiful women. Tony would never have thought to buy some frames for the photos, and he would buy another for that candid of his mother that Ziva had found. He loved that one too, and the happiness that seemed to spill out of the photo and into the room, but the photo that now resided in the second frame Ziva had bought him seemed to fit better.

It hadn't taken long to find it, seconds, in fact. Tony had tucked it away safe in his bedside draw since he had brought it home, and it was perfect in the silver frame now looking back at him.

Tony tightened his grip on the warm body on top of him, not taking his eyes of the first woman who broke his heart, then slipping to the photo next to his mother of the woman now resting peacefully in his arms that would probably be the death of him.

Tony's heart had started thumping wildly in his chest when she had handed over his awkward photo of his younger self. Somehow, he thinks there's a little more to Ziva getting his picture back than she let on, but he hadn't pushed. Tony appreciated it immensely, and she had known it had caused him grief when the boss had taken it off him. He'll thank her properly in the morning when she wakes up, maybe with a big breakfast; he has enough in his cupboards for pancakes.

His eyes wander to the sleeping woman in his arms again, heart swelling at the sweet sight of her. He had been falling for his partner for years now, with major roadblocks in the way, however they still managed to survive though it all. The candid that he took of her in Paris managed to capture all of her beauty in an instant, and while he loved his mother – and still does – that picture of Ziva seemed to call to him, to finally be put on display so he had her in his home at all times.

'Tony?' Ziva's sleepy voice murmurs on his chest.

'Go to sleep, sweetheart,' he says, pressing another kiss to her head.

'Did I miss the movie?'

'We can watch it again,' he chuckles at her upset tone. 'You were tired, and it's late. Just stay here tonight.' Tony's hand rubs her back gently, trying to soothe her back into sleep.

'Ok,' she says sleepily, wrapping her arms around his waist sending his heart into tiny somersaults. 'Goodnight, my little hairy butt.'

He chuckles as quietly as he can, trying not to jostle her, and strokes her wavy hair. He'd move the photos tomorrow. He wants the women he loves closer to him, so he'll move them to his bedside where he can glance at them before being taken by sleep – much like he is now.

Tony sighs again, thanking whoever controlled destiny that Ziva was brought back to him, because he can't live without her. He can't live without her kindness like tonight, he can't live without her knowing that he needs someone – her – to stay close on nights like these.

He moves slightly, and she wraps a leg around one of his, keeping him close to her. Tony smiles again when Ziva snuggles her nose into his neck. Yeah, he loves this woman; he'll love this woman until the day he dies, but he'll also be there, however she needs, whenever she needs.

He's not letting her go easily. He won't let her go. Period.

* * *

A/N: Do I deserve a review?

:D


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